The Thursday evening session of the 2025 PDC Winmau World Masters has concluded in Milton Keynes, with Danny Noppert and Stephen Bunting taking their places in the last 16 via wins over Michael Smith and Willie Borland respectively.
Michael Smith won the bull in the back room and as such, had the advantage of throw in the opening set. ‘BullyBoy’ failed to make use of this though, barely hitting a treble in the entirety of the first set, allowing Noppert to breeze through into a 1-0 with two straight legs.
The first leg of set 2 was also comfortable for ‘The Freeze’. Finally though, Smith sparked into life in the next leg, nailing his first dart at double in the match to level the second set at 1-1. With a moment of magic, Smith fined in an incredible 160 checkout and levelled the contest at 1-1 in sets just moments later.
Continuing his momentum, Smith held throw in the opening leg of set 3 to actually nudge in front for the first time in the match. After missing a couple of set darts in the next leg though, Noppert punished the former world champion to force a deciding leg in set. Criminally, Smith then missed two more for the match in the decider, allowing Noppert a chance and the Dutchman made no mistake, moving 2-1 ahead.
With both players holding throw in set 4, the set went all the way to a decider. Noppert had the darts and was throwing for the match, but it was Smith who had first dart at double. When Smith went wide on the bull though, Noppert forged at chance at the centre of the board himself. Although Noppert too missed, Smith couldn't mop up on his return, allowing the Dutchman to return and seal victory.
A little earlier in the night, reigning Masters champion Stephen Bunting survived a real scare against qualifier Willie Borland. The Scot, who famously hit a nine-darter on the Ally Pally stage a few years back, impressively came through the qualifier yesterday and carried that momentum into this contest, racing into a 2-0 in sets against the world number five.
As showcased numerous times over the last eighteen months though, Bunting is not an easy man to beat. ‘The Bullet’ roared back into the contest, reeling off the next two sets to get back to 2-2 and force a decider. In the deciding set, it went all the way to the third leg, where Bunting showed his class to nail double top and seal the victory.